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Appropedia is the site for collaborative solutions in sustainability, poverty reduction and international development through the use of sound principles and appropriate technology and the sharing of wisdom and project information. It is a wiki, a type of website which allows anyone to add, remove, or edit content.

Link: Appropedia

Winter Grazing - a Better Way to Feed - YouTube


With the continuing volatility of energy costs, livestock producers are looking for ways to save on inputs. Stockpiling forage to extend the grazing season and strip grazing to improve forage utilization offer economic and environmental benefits. In this video, three livestock producers describe how extending the grazing season has saved them time and money, while also improving the environment; and they demonstrate the methods they used to achieve these savings. Sponsored by the Natural Resources Conservation Service's East National Technology Support Center, this video shows that livestock producers in any region of the US where there are pastures can take advantage of this system. Much of the data presented was collected and analyzed as part of projects covering more than 25 farms in North Carolina in a collaborative effort between North Carolina NRCS and North Carolina State University's Animal Science Department.

This video was produced through a partnership agreement between Dr. Robin 'Buz' Kloot, Earth Sciences and Resources Institute, University of South Carolina, and the USDA NRCS East National Technology Support Center.

The opinions expressed in this video are those of the presenter(s) and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of USDA.

Bhutan to Be First Country to Go 100% Organic | NationofChange

Culture which use these methods: Organic great --> Permaculture/Polyculture better --> 100% Positive Soil Aggradation best ... Monte



Published: Tuesday 19 February 2013

The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan is known for a high level of citizen happiness, but it is doing something even more noteworthy in the near future.
If there was ever a nation that could see the purpose behind organic, sustainable farming, it would be a nation that is composed mostly of farmers. Such a place does exist, and it soon may be the first nation to go 100% organic, paving the way for others to do the same on a global scale.

The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan is known for a high level of citizen happiness, but it is doing something even more noteworthy in the near future. With Prime Minister Jigmi Thinley making a major announcement regarding the organic farming project at the Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development which took place last month, the move has made national headlines. It’s called the National Organic Policy, and it is fueled by the simple concept that working ‘in harmony with nature’ will yield the most powerful results — all without sacrificing human health or the environment.

Nation of Change fights back with one simple but powerful weapon: the truth. Can you donate $5 to help us?
What this comes down to is no GMO, no pesticides, no herbicides, no fluoride-based spray products, no Monsanto intrusion at all, and a whole lot of high quality food available for the 700,000 citizens of Bhutan. Food that, at one time, was simply called ‘food’. In the statement to other policy makers, Prime Minister Jigmi Thinley explained the move:

“By working in harmony with nature, they can help sustain the flow of nature’s bounties.”

Bhutan’s land currently supplys most corn, rice, fruits, and some vegetables, and it is perfectly positioned to begin developing 100% organic farming. In addition to containing a population that is mostly farmers, it also has extremely rich lands that are truly beyond what many consider organic.

Some lands in Bhutan have not even been touched with harsh chemicals of any kind, and traditional techniques are utilized to produce high yields without Monsanto dipping into the pockets of family farmers. This is in sharp contrast to India’s farming community, which has been shafted by Monsanto and subsequently nicknamed the ‘suicide belt‘ due to the rampant suicides that can be blamed in part by Monsanto-induced financial ruin.

Australian adviser to Bhutan, Andre Leu, explains:

“I don’t think it’s going to be that difficult given that the majority of the agricultural land is already organic by default.”

The shift is certainly inspiring, but it also reminds us about the true lunacy of designating foods as ‘organic’ and ‘traditional’ in modern society. These Bhutan farmers are not growing magic beans or enchanted corn, they are growing real food. Actual food as it was grown for thousands of years. It’s only now, with the advent of ways in which we can toxify our crops, do we value organic as if it were some privilege or act of class. When it comes down to it, we just want real food.

Kinivo BTH220 Bluetooth Stereo Headphone - YouTube



Eileen and I like these Bluetooth Stereo Headphones - Great Value http://tinyurl.com/a5nxl8o

Amazon.com: Jared Castle's review of Kinivo BTH220 Bluetooth Stereo Headphone
http://amzn.to/KElkq3

Smart phone users will enjoy the lightweight design, user-friendly buttons and good sound quality.

Kinivo BTH220 Bluetooth Stereo Headphone - YouTube

Feb 22, 2013

Mississippi River Levels Likely to Limit Barges in 2013

FEBRUARY 22, 2013
By: Bloomberg


RELATED STORIES:
Mississippi River Improves, but Not in the Clear
Mississippi River Recedes Faster Than Expected, Shippers Say
Rough Waters Still Ahead on the Mississippi River

Feb. 21 (Bloomberg) -- The Missouri and upper Mississippi rivers have a greater chance of returning to drought-depleted levels because of dry soil and low reservoirs, forecasters said, signaling fresh limits for barges on the busiest U.S. waterway.

The rivers "will have to have greater-than-normal" rain to avoid repeating near-record low levels this year, Steve Buan, a hydrologist at the National Weather Service, said today at a congressional staff briefing. "We are going to have to have rain in spring and fall, so we don’t have a situation like we had last year."

Low river levels at the end of 2012 triggered by the nation’s worst drought in more than 70 years forced barge operators such as AEP River Operations LLC to reduce cargoes to navigate in shallow areas of the Mississippi. To keep barge traffic moving, the Army Corps of Engineers removed rocky outcroppings south of St. Louis, deepening the channel by about 2 feet.

Excavating the rocks is "into its final stages," said Chandra Pathak, an hydrologist for the Corps.

While the river emergency has eased, government scientists say the longterm impact of the 2012 drought could lead to lower water levels this year. The drought left soils drier across the upper Midwest, Buan said. As a result, most rain that falls in the coming months will be sucked up by crops and plants, he said. In addition, six of the Corps’ reservoirs are below normal and the Great Lakes are below historic averages, Pathak said.

NOAA Outlook

Buan said in a typical year, there is a 30 percent chance of water falling as low as it did at the end of 2012 on the Mississippi. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s outlook for this year puts that chance at 40 percent on the Mississippi and 50 percent for the Missouri, which flows into the Mississippi at St. Louis.

In a separate report, the U.S. Climate Prediction Center said drought conditions may improve in the next three months across parts of the Midwest, including Iowa, Minnesota and Missouri.

Dryness is expected to persist through the Great Plains from Nebraska to Texas and spread through most of California, according to the College Park, Maryland-based center’s seasonal outlook.

--Editors: Steve Geimann, Jon Morgan


Full Article:
Mississippi River Levels Likely to Limit Barges in 2013

Automatically Clean Up Gmail on a Schedule with This Script - Lifehacker

Great Article!   Monte

FEB 22, 2013
Automatically Clean Up Gmail on a Schedule with This Script
Melanie Pinola

Maintaining inbox zero and dealing with old emails takes work (for some, too much work!). This Google Apps script lightens the load a bit by automatically archiving or deleting old emails that are cluttering your inbox, based on a schedule you set.

Whipped up by John Day, these time-based Gmail filters will move old read emails to the trash or auto-archive them.

So, for example, you could automatically get rid of expired daily deals emails or other promotional emails that are more than two days old. First, create a Gmail filter that automatically applies the label "delete me" to that semi-spam when it comes in.


Then the Google Apps script, which you'll need to authorize for your Gmail account, takes care of deleting emails with that label that are older than two days. You can adjust the number of days before messages are moved to the trash in the script (see the delayDays variable and change the 2 to another number) and under the Resources > Current project's triggers... option, set the script to check your inbox every half hour or other interval.

For those old, read emails you want to keep but move out of your inbox, there's another function that archives them. (In the script you can also adjust the older_than search to something other than 2d and add or exclude other labels.)

For more details, see John's post, where he offers the code for you to paste into a new Google Apps Script. I've shared this Google Apps script with the two functions pasted in, so you can just make a copy of it to your account and run it per John's instructions.

Create time-based Gmail filters with Google Apps Script | Johneday via adayzdone

Photo by Storozhenko (Shutterstock)

Full Article: Automatically Clean Up Gmail on a Schedule with This Script

Make a miter sled for your table saw. Improved version. - YouTube


Published on Feb 22, 2013
A miter sled is a useful jig for making perfect 45 degree mitered corners. I made a video a while ago, but I think it was overly complicated. This version is super-easy to make and only requires one perfect 90 degree angle.

Plans:
http://bit.ly/X20YeV

I also have a second video this week. Plywood picture frame...using the sled:
http://youtu.be/rc4ACVofxyQ
----------------
Woodworking For Mere Mortals. Easy woodworking projects every Friday.

Subscribe to WWMM and never miss a video!
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Website: http://www.woodworkingformeremortals....
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WoodworkingF...
----------------
Music:
"See You Later" by Pitx (feat. Fireproof Babies, Bmccosar)
http://ccmixter.org/files/Pitx/17154

Make a miter sled for your table saw. Improved version. - YouTube

Simple design!   Monte

Hines Farm - Homemade Soup - Italian Sausage Tortellini Soup Recipe - Allrecipes.com

Outside

Inside - Home Made Italian Sausage Tortellini Soup & Garlic Onion Pork Roast with Potatoes, Oinion, Carrots, and Celery


Published on Feb 19, 2013
Get the recipe @ http://allrecipes.com/recipe/italian-...

Watch how to make traditional Italian sausage soup with tortellini from scratch. This dish is both homey and elegant, and is easy to assemble. And the leftovers are yummy too!

Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/Allrecipes

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@Allrecipesvideo

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Winter Lunch
What else to do but use some of preserved garden stuff... Fun... Good... Monte & Eileen

Soup - Original recipe makes 6 servings
1 (3.5 ounce) link sweet Italian sausage, casings removed
1 cup chopped onions
2 cloves garlic, minced
5 cups beef stock
1/3 cup water
1/2 cup red wine
4 tomatoes - peeled, seeded and chopped
1 cup chopped carrots
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 cup tomato sauce
1 zucchini, chopped
8 ounces cheese tortellini
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese for topping

Directions:
Place the sausage in a large pot over medium high heat and saute for 10 minutes, or until well browned. Drain the fat except for about 1 tablespoon, add the onions and garlic and saute for 5 more minutes.
Next add the beef stock, water, wine, tomatoes, carrots, basil, oregano and tomato sauce. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes, skimming any fat that may surface.
Add the zucchini, tortellini, green bell pepper and parsley to taste. Simmer for 10 minutes, or until tortellini is fully cooked. Pour into individual bowls and garnish with the cheese.

Biofuel Mandate Destroys Grasslands - Hit & Run : Reason.com

Ronald Bailey
Feb. 21, 2013
Congress mandates that gasoline contains 10 percent corn ethanol and the industry is pushing to boost this to 15 percent. The federal mandate contributes to higher grain prices as 40 percent of America's corn crop is poured into our gas tanks. Now the Washington Post is reporting a new study that finds that there is one other highly predictable consequence of the mandate: farmers are plowing up more land to grow corn thus reducing prairie grasslands inhabited and used by wild creatures. As the Post observes:

America’s prairies are shrinking. Spurred on by the rush for biofuels, farmers are digging up grasslands in the northern Plains to plant crops at the quickest pace since the 1930s. While that’s been a boon for farmers, the upheaval could create unexpected problems.

A new study by Christopher Wright and Michael Wimberly of South Dakota State University finds that U.S. farmers converted more than 1.3 million acres of grassland into corn and soybean fields between 2006 and 2011, driven by high crop prices and biofuel mandates (right). In states like Iowa and South Dakota, some 5 percent of pasture is turning into cropland each year.

It’s a big transformation in the heart of the country: The authors conclude that the rates of grassland loss are “comparable to deforestation rates in Brazil, Malaysia, and Indonesia.” And those changes are already having plenty of impacts.

As I pointed out last week in my column on President Obama's new energy initiatives outlined in his State of the Union speech:

Billions in federal subsidies have conjured the bioethanol industry into existence, but scientists still debate whether corn bioethanol actually reduces greenhouse gas emissions. A recent life-cycle analysis of corn ethanol production found that its greenhouse gas emissions could be"roughly 25 percent more than the entire lifecycle emissions of petrol."

Feds just please stop interfering in energy markets - no mandates, no subsidies, no nothing! You're doing more harm than good.

Go here [PDF] to read the new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Biofuel Mandate Destroys Grasslands - Hit & Run : Reason.com

--------------
My Opinion:

Corn is wrong answer for producing fuels. Marginal farm lands could be planted to perennial feedstocks, thus protecting and building soil, and still be harvested once a year for local bio-fuel production.

October 2012 update to Mike Cheiky's WeSolveforX talk on carbon negative fuels to combat climate change and global poverty
http://youtu.be/E84dt6AA2JM

More on this:
http://tinyurl.com/aw5f6tq
http://tinyurl.com/a87gb25

Monte Hines

Feb 19, 2013

Green@Google: Aaron Gross (Robot Chickens and Virtual Farms)


Green@Google: Aaron Gross (Robot Chickens and Virtual Farms)
Published on Feb 19, 2013
Our food choices reflect our deepest-held beliefs; they also have a bigger impact on animal suffering, global warming, and our natural environment than anything else we do. in a talk given at Google Mountain View on 29 Oct 2012, Farm Forward CEO Aaron Gross considers our modern animal agricultural system.

Sunshine laws and cameras will go a long ways to correcting problems within our society. They could and should be used widely (from Supreme court to any activities that impact our shared environment).... Monte


What If the World’s Soil Runs Out? | TIME.com

By World Economic Forum
Dec. 14, 2012

GETTY IMAGES

This is a “what if” interview from the World Economic Forum’s Risk Response Network. To view the rest of the series, click here.

It’s a strange notion, but some experts fear the world, at its current pace of consumption, is running out of useable topsoil. The World Economic Forum, in collaboration with TIME, talked to University of Sydney professor John Crawford on the seismic implications soil erosion and degradation may have in the decades to come.

Is soil really in danger of running out?

A rough calculation of current rates of soil degradation suggests we have about 60 years of topsoil left. Some 40% of soil used for agriculture around the world is classed as either degraded or seriously degraded – the latter means that 70% of the topsoil, the layer allowing plants to grow, is gone. Because of various farming methods that strip the soil of carbon and make it less robust as well as weaker in nutrients, soil is being lost at between 10 and 40 times the rate at which it can be naturally replenished. Even the well-maintained farming land in Europe, which may look idyllic, is being lost at unsustainable rates.
Why haven’t we heard more about this?

Probably because soil isn’t sexy. People don’t always think about how it’s connected with so many other things: health, the environment, security, climate, water. For example, agriculture accounts for 70% of our fresh water use: we pour most of our water straight onto the ground. If soil is not fit for purpose, that water will be wasted, because it washes right through degraded soil and past the root system. Given the enormous potential for conflict over water in the next 20-30 years, you don’t want to exacerbate things by continuing to damage the soil, which is exactly what’s happening now.

(MORE: Feeding the Planet Without Destroying It)

How does soil erosion happen?

Soil is a living material: if you hold a handful of soil, there will be more microorganisms in there than the number of people who have ever lived on the planet. These microbes recycle organic material, which underpins the cycle of life on earth, and also engineer the soil on a tiny level to make it more resilient and better at holding onto water. Microbes need carbon for food, but carbon is being lost from the soil in a number of ways. Simply put, we take too much from the soil and don’t put enough back. Whereas the classic approach would have been to leave stubble in the field after harvest, this is now often being burnt off, which can make it easier to grow the next crop, or it’s being removed and used for animal feed. Second, carbon is lost by too much disturbance of the soil by over-ploughing and by the misuse of certain fertilizers. And the third problem is overgrazing. If there are too many animals, they eat all the plant growth, and one of the most important ways of getting carbon into the soil is through photosynthesis.

What happens if this isn’t addressed?

There aretwo key issues. One is the loss of soil productivity. Under a business as usual scenario, degraded soil will mean that we will produce 30% less food over the next 20-50 years. This is against a background of projected demand requiring us to grow 50% more food, as the population grows and wealthier people in countries like China and India eat more meat, which takes more land to produce weight-for-weight than, say, rice.

Second, water will reach a crisis point. This issue is already causing conflicts in India, China, Pakistan and the Middle East and before climate change and food security really hit, the next wars are likely to be fought over unsustainable irrigation. Even moderately degraded soil will hold less than half of the water than healthy soil in the same location. If you’re irrigating a crop, you need water to stay in the soil close to the plant roots. However, a staggering paper was published recently indicating that nearly half of the sea level rise since 1960 is due to irrigation water flowing straight past the crops and washing out to sea.

Who will be impacted the most?

Soil erosion is most serious in China, Africa, India and parts of South America. If the food supply goes down, then obviously, the price goes up. The crisis points will hit the poorest countries hardest, in particular those which rely on imports: Egypt, for example, is almost entirely dependent on imports of wheat. The capacity of the planet to produce food is already causing conflict. A lot of people argue that food price hikes caused the Arab spring, and may even have contributed to the recent violence following the release of an anti-Islam film.

(MORE: Food Fight! Stores, Producers, Consumers Battle over High Food Prices)

What about richer countries?

They will have to deal with more refugees fleeing from truly desperate situations. Then there’s the fact that this is happening at a time of economic difficulty in the West, with growing disparities across society and some people already having to resort to charity to feed themselves. The connection here with health is significant. Cheap food tends to be low in protein and high in carbohydrate, which is exactly the wrong balance for a healthy society. By reducing food to a mere commodity, we have created a system that is degrading the global capacity to continue to produce food, and is fuelling a global epidemic of diabetes and related chronic disease. Obesity in the US cost 150 billion dollars – 20% of the health budget - in 2008, the latest figures available, and this huge cost will rise as the broken food system takes its toll.

Why is the food system broken?

The big picture is that the amount of land per person has been shrinking over the last 100 years: we now have about a quarter of a hectare per person on the planet and we’re using half of the total land area on the globe for agriculture. If you think of that little quarter hectare, we’re asking more of it than ever before, largely because of population and the modern diet, which is totally inappropriate. Governments have not got this right. We’re subsidising unsustainable food production systems at the cost of our health and our environment. Soil is not costed into food, which means that farmers don’t have the financial capacity to invest in their soil to turn the situation around. Crop breeding is exacerbating this situation. Modern wheat varieties, for example, have half the micronutrients of older strains, and it’s pretty much the same for fruit and vegetables. The focus has been on breeding high-yield crops which can survive on degraded soil, so it’s hardly surprising that 60% of the world’s population is deficient in nutrients like iron. If it’s not in the soil, it’s not in our food.

What should be done about this?

Significant progress is technically quite straightforward. There’s a lot we can do, we just have to choose to do it and provide the right support where it is needed. First-off I’d focus on getting carbon back into the soil, by reversing bad farming practices like tillage, nutrient mismanagement, removing stubble and over-grazing. We can add manure and consider using human waste from cities as fertiliser, instead of just flushing it all out to sea.

In the longer term, breeding targets need to focus more on human nutrition as well as productivity, and on traits that improve the soil. We need to find new ways of bringing together scientists and farmers to harness the expertise of both. From a policy standpoint, probably the most important thing is to find pricing mechanisms that take into account the environmental, health and other costs of a broken system. Farmers need to be appropriately rewarded for regenerating the environment and producing food that supports a healthier society.

Finally we need to recognise that this is a global problem that would benefit from a global approach. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel in each country, and we don’t have time to do so. It takes decades to regenerate soil. I find it quite ironic that while the Mars Curiosity Rover is poking around looking for life in Martian soil, we’re in the process of extinguishing life in our own.

MORE: Climate Change and Farming: How Not to Go Hungry in a Warmer World

Read more: http://world.time.com/2012/12/14/what-if-the-worlds-soil-runs-out/#ixzz2LNOwu15k

What If the World’s Soil Runs Out? | TIME.com

Permaculture could be farming’s future » Local News » Batesville Herald Tribune, Batesville, Indiana

February 19, 2013
Permaculture could be farming’s future

Debbie Blank The Herald-Tribune

— “We’re in a bit of a new world,” admitted author Peter Bane, Bloomington, to about 50 attending the seventh annual Food and Growers Association of Laughery Valley and Environs conference Feb. 9. They came to the Batesville Intermediate School cafeteria to learn about “Growing in Challenging Conditions.”

Climate and energy challenges will be “the story of the next era we’re entering into.”

Bane was invited because the longtime editor of Permaculture Activist is an expert on the practice, which is modeled from natural ecosystems and emphasizes patterns of landscape, function and species assemblies.

Farmers and gardeners now contend with “too much heat because of the addition of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. That’s probably why we had this roller-coaster winter – deep cold and then warm.”

Weather is more variable than in the past. “We can’t necessarily count on the same progression of seasons. Last year’s March got into the 80s very early and stayed hot, then we saw some frost after that. It’s pretty hard for plants to figure out what to do.”

Bane pointed out, “Heat brings with it drought ... 63 percent of the country was in extreme drought” in 2012.

As climate shifts, the “delicate coordination between pests and pest predators” is upset.

The speaker reported, “We have to re-stabilize the climate. That requires a lot of people to cooperate, but we can do our part” by reducing fossil fuel use. He urged listeners to advocate at city council, school board, neighbor and church meetings.

“The longer-term solution is to address where that carbon got into the atmosphere.” Carbon in the soil was reduced when it was plowed and forests were cut down. “There are ways to put the carbon back in the soil. Farmers are poised to become the heroes of the future.”

They must “not only grow crops, but grow and build soil .... to farm successfully.”

The Earth Haven Ecovillage co-founder suggested planting perennial trees and shrubs around fields or in rows between crops, called alley cropping. They can provide shade and wind breaks for crops, plus attract wildlife and pest predators to lessen destructive pests.

“We need to figure out how we can use plants and animals together.” He reported Joel Salatin, who owns 550-acre Polyface Farm in Virginia, went from 1 to 8 percent nutrients in his soil by rotating animals in fields. Cows are moved from one pasture to another. Then chickens in portable coops are moved in behind them, where they dig through manure to eat protein-rich fly larvae while further fertilizing the fields with their droppings.

Purdue University researchers are experimenting with growing corn between black walnut trees, which release nitrogen in the soil to fertilize crops. Other “nitrogen fixers” Bane recommends planting are two shrubs: amorpha, an indigo bush; or goumi, an Asian bush that bears small fruits; or any of four trees: mimosa; redbud; black locust; or paulownia, also known as Japanese princess, a quick grower that produces high-value cabinetry wood.

George Schewe, Dillsboro, was concerned that as trees planted for alley cropping grew, crops would be crowded out. Bane recommended pruning and allowing enough space for trees to spread. When asked what trees he would plant, the speaker said black walnuts are compatible with grains and legumes and “if you’re growing black locusts, there are your fence posts.”

Pampering plants, while time consuming, can produce better results. Because “heavy rain causes rot in tomato crops, plastic covers can help prevent that.” He also suggested using shade cloths and even greenhouses to keep the growing environment cooler in the summer.

Bane, who has been known to water his microfarm at midnight, said growers need to use that resource more wisely. “Shape the land to hold water. Start at the top of the watershed .... Manage runoff” by creating ponds for rain to flow into. Later, it can be pumped to parched fields.

Soil has to be made more porous so rain can infiltrate it. While the tendency of farmers has been to plow and aerate claylike soil, that packs down the earth. Instead, Bane suggested using plant roots and soil organisms, such as worms, to help the ground become more permeable. The deep roots of some plants, such as daikon radishes, even dead, can create underground channels for moisture if left undisturbed.

Larry Stosman of Growers Tools, Cincinnati, asked, “Can permaculture be used on an industrial scale?” Bane replied many of the guidelines are more practical for small farmers and gardeners.

Producers with many acres should “shy away from intense chemical usage and genetic modification.” He maintained chemicals are ineffective, expensive and dangerous. Farmers lost 7 percent of their crops in 1950, lower than today’s 13 percent, according to him. “You have to wonder ... (are chemicals) actually effective?”

“Over the long term, I think we’re going to see smaller farms re-emerge. In 20 years, we’ll need more people on the farm because we’ll have to do more things by hand.”

“Our moment is coming,” he promised attendees. “We need more young people” in agriculture. “This is what we’re going to do with the unemployed. We’re at the tipping point.”

DEALING WITH DROUGHT

• Keep a weather log and follow regional statistics to assess baselines and emerging trends.

• Store as much water as you can and have more than one source of supply.

• Feed soil and keep it covered.

• Cluster and layer plantings. Put small plants in the shade of big ones to protect from frost and sun.

• When water must be rationed, apply limited amounts regularly. Favor long-lived or high-value plantings that have a chance.

• Use the cooler seasons to grow more annuals.

• Adapt by choosing a variety of crops, including those that tolerate high heat.

• Consider installing drip irrigation and monitor water consumption closely.

DETAILS

• FGA’s mission is “to build a regional food system that is sustainable, healthful and just,” reports President Kathy Cooley. Info: www.foodandgrowers.org.

Permaculture could be farming’s future » Local News » Batesville Herald Tribune, Batesville, Indiana